This Friday, our city has a monumental decision to make. At a moment when people are wondering if cities can still deliver on big ideas and bold initiatives, at a moment when working-class families are wondering whether they can still afford to make it here in New York City, at a moment when we desperately need more affordable housing, we have the opportunity to say “yes” to all three. This is what is at stake at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal.
For decades, the Brooklyn Waterfront was an essential part of our economy, connecting cargo from across the globe and creating good-paying jobs for New Yorkers. Unfortunately, over the last 50 years, as industrial sectors dried up and jobs fled the terminal slowly fell apart.
Last year, the Adams administration struck a historic deal to take control of the terminal, creating a once-in-a-generation chance to revitalize the facility and the surrounding area. In the year since, a task force of elected officials, representatives from regional organizations, port businesses and local advocates have listened to a diverse set of stakeholders and weighed the future of the site. They heard from over 4,200 community members, held nearly 50 public engagements, conducted almost 30 workshops and convened several town halls.
The task force heard it over and over again. We need to bring back jobs. We need to build more housing. And we needed to revitalize the port infrastructure. Above all, we need to create a city that works for working-class people and preserves the vibrant, maritime character of the Red Hook neighborhood. Now, we have a plan to do just that.
Here is what this vision plan would do. First, it would transform the crumbling marine terminal into a modern, all-electric port with electric cranes, new bulkheads, and a new marginal pier along the shore. With resilient infrastructure, the new pier could handle more cargo from shipping containers and serve as a crucial node on the “Blue Highway” to move more freight on our waterways and reduce truck trips on our congested roadways.
Rebuilding the marine terminal would change the dynamics of our city’s economy for many decades, keeping us at the front of green industries and creating thousands of new jobs. Right now, your typical container of bananas might land in Brooklyn, be barged to New Jersey, get loaded onto a diesel truck, and rumble across the Verrazano or the George Washington Bridge towards Hunts Point, to then be broken down and delivered to your local grocery store. That truck clogs up our road and dumps smog onto our city. And that’s before the fruit even gets delivered – by more trucks – to your local grocery store.
The Brooklyn Marine Terminal would help change that. With BMT, that same container of bananas would land at the terminal, transfer onto a barge, and float up the East River to key hubs in the Bronx and beyond. No bridges, no traffic, no smog. Once there, those bananas can get re-packaged onto electric cargo trikes or roll back onto ferries and sail quietly across our waterfront to make last-mile deliveries. It’s fast, clean and calm.
But this plan is not just about creating ‘green-collar’ jobs and restoring BMT to its essential role in our regional economy and food supply chain. It’s about creating a dynamic, mixed-use community around the new terminal, and that includes housing.
At a moment when just 1.4% of homes in our city are vacant, this plan would add an astonishing 6,000 new homes to Brooklyn, with 40% permanently affordable. These 2,400 rent-regulated apartments are 20 times what has been produced in the areas surrounding the site over the last ten years. It would make sure that thousands of working-class New Yorkers can afford to stay in the communities that raised them and start a family there themselves.
At a moment when new businesses are looking for facilities to grow and expand, this vision plan would add hundreds of thousands of square feet for workforce, commercial and industrial space. It would make sure that we don’t just create new jobs in maritime industries but in many more sectors.
And at a moment when people need more ways to get to, from, and around the BMT area, this vision plan will put pedestrians and public transit first. It will commit tens of millions of dollars for new electric shuttle and bus services.
Above all, this plan will make sure working-class families can find jobs and homes in Brooklyn for generations to come.
This Friday, that vision plan is up for a vote. The 28-person task force will have to decide whether to move forward with this bold vision for the Brooklyn waterfront or let the port continue to decay.
To those who listened to the host community and invested themselves in the future of this waterfront, the answer is clear: we must say yes to this plan. Tenant leaders from NYCHA, federal, state and local representatives, maritime businesses, transportation advocates, local businesses, housing advocates and many local community members and leaders are in support. By voting yes, you are saying yes to jobs, homes, industrial space, public parks, resilience, and a city that can develop and deliver ambitious projects that ensure New York retains its status as the greatest city on earth.
Adolfo Carrion Jr. is the Deputy Mayor for Housing, Economic Development and Workforce.
